Improvement in picture-hooks



n. s. MERRILL. PITURE-IIOOKS.

No. 194,108. Patented Aug, 428,1877;A

Witnesses.' l fzwenfof: i

UNITED STATES PATENT GEF'ICE.

RUFUS S. MERRILL, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN PICTURE-HOOKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 194,708, dated August28, 1877 application filed August 15, 1877.

Toall whom it may concern Be it known that I, RUFUS S. MERRILL, ofBoston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvementsin Picture-Hooks; and I dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art towhich it appertain's to make and use the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawing, and to the letters of reference markedthereon, which forms a part of this specification.

My invention relates to picture-hooks which are designed to engage andbe m""ovable on a horizontal rail or picture-rod molding placed, like acornice, ou the wall of a room near the ceiling.

Heretotore such hooks have been made of cast metal, and have been narrowor of little width-a construction objectionable on several accounts. Thehook is expensive; and it is so formed that it hangs from a single pointon the molding, thus -concentrating in one spot all thestrain of theweight which it sustains.

It has been my object to make a hook not open to these objections. ThisI irst accomplished by making the hook of wire, and forming it at therail end with divergent or spread-apart hook-arms, to engage and t-akean extended bearing on the picture-rod molding.

A hook of this kind is not here claimed, inasmuch as I have already'madeit the subject of a separate application for Letters Patent, tiled inthe United States Patent Oiiice on or about the 13th day of July, 1877,and

,now allowed.

Since then I have still further improved the construction of the hook,the said improvement, which forms the subject of this application, beingas follows:

l make the hook of sheet metal, bent or struck up in the form of adouble hook. The piece ot' metal of which the hook is formed is oftriangular forml approximately, the apex portionbeing bent in onedirection to form the narrow hook that receives the picture cord orwire, and the base portion being bent in the opposite direction to formabroad hook that will take an extended bearing on the picture-rodmolding.

I thus obtain in sheet metal a picture-hook, with a narrow hook for thepicture and a broad extended hook for the moldingahook 'that differsfrom my wire hook heretofore reperspective, a sheet-metal picture-hookmade in accordance with my invention.

It is composed of a singlepiece of sheet metal, wide at the upper endand narrow at the lower end, bent into S shape approximately, so as toform at the lower end the narrow hook a, which receives the picture cordor wire, and at the upper end the wide hook b, which engages and takesextended bearing on the molding or rail A, (represented in dotted lues,)the bearing being continuous throughout the width of the hook.

The hook can be made easily and cheaply, and can be made highlyornamental with little increased cost.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

A sheetmetal picturehook made inthe form of a double hook from a singlesheet of metal, broad at the molding 0r rail-hook end and narrow at theopposite end, as shown and set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I hereunto affix mysignature in presence of two witnesses.

RUFUS S. MERRILL.

Witnesses: Y Y

ARTHUR It. SWAN, JAMES A. BoUvE.

